Sri Lanka’s new leader appoints the first female prime minister in 24 years

National People’s power lawmaker Harini Amarasuriya, 54, signs after taking oath for the post of Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP)
National People’s power lawmaker Harini Amarasuriya, 54, signs after taking oath for the post of Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 24 September 2024
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Sri Lanka’s new leader appoints the first female prime minister in 24 years

National People’s power lawmaker Harini Amarasuriya, 54, signs after taking oath for the post of Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister.
  • The last woman to serve as prime minister, the second most-powerful position after the president, was Sirimavo Bandaranaike
  • She was also the world’s first female head of government when she took up the post in 1960, and served three terms until 2000

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Tuesday swore in an opposition lawmaker as his prime minister, making her the country’s first woman to head the government in 24 years.
Harini Amarasuriya, 54, a university lecturer and activist, comes from a similar background as Dissanayake and both are members of the Marxist-leaning National People’s Power coalition.
His victory in Saturday’s election over ex-President Ranil Wickremesinghe and opposition leader Sajith Premadasa came as Sri Lankans rejected the old political guard whom they blamed for pushing the country into an unprecedented economic crisis.
The last woman to serve as prime minister, the second most-powerful position after the president, was Sirimavo Bandaranaike. She was also the world’s first female head of government when she took up the post in 1960, and served three terms until 2000.
Dissanayake’s first major challenge will be to act on his campaign promise to ease the crushing austerity measures imposed by his predecessor Wickremesinghe under a relief agreement with the International Monetary Fund, after Sri Lanka defaulted on its debt.
Wickremesinghe has warned that any move to alter the basics of the bailout agreement could delay the release of a fourth tranche of nearly $3 billion.
Sri Lanka’s crisis was largely the result of staggering economic mismanagement combined with fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, which along with 2019 terrorism attacks devastated its important tourism industry.
Sri Lanka’s politics have mostly been dominated by men since the island nation introduced universal suffrage in 1931. It’s a trend seen in most countries globally — in 2023, a Pew Research Center analysis found only 13 of the 193 member states of the United Nations had women as the head of government.
Bandaranaike’s younger daughter, Chandrika Kumaratunga, later became the country’s first and only female president, holding office from 1994 to 2005.


China to hash out stimulus plan with US elections in its sights

China to hash out stimulus plan with US elections in its sights
Updated 14 sec ago
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China to hash out stimulus plan with US elections in its sights

China to hash out stimulus plan with US elections in its sights
  • Beijing is anticipating the result of the US election, with Trump promising tariffs of 60 percent on all Chinese goods if he wins
  • China is battling sluggish domestic consumption, a persistent crisis in the property sector and soaring government debt

BEIJING: China’s top lawmakers gather Monday to hash out a major stimulus package that analysts say could grow even bigger if former US president Donald Trump wins the White House this week.
Beijing has in recent months heeded calls to step up support for the economy after years of inaction, announcing a raft of measures including rate cuts and the easing of some home buying restrictions.
But they have refrained from unveiling a figure for the long-awaited stimulus, disappointing investors after a market rally fizzled when officials repeatedly failed to commit to a top line.
Analysts now hope this number could emerge from this week’s meeting of the Standing Committee of National People’s Congress, the top body of China’s rubber stamp parliament and headed by number three official Zhao Leji.
The standing committee reviews and approves all legislation, including allocating funds out of China’s budget.
“We are expecting more details on the proposals to be passed,” said Heron Lim of Moody’s Analytics, including “how this extra funding would be allocated to address the near-term economic issues.”
Nomura economists expect lawmakers this week to approve around a trillion yuan ($140 billion) in extra budget — mostly for indebted local governments.
Analysts also expect Beijing to approve a one-off one trillion yuan for banks, aimed at writing off non-performing loans over the past four years.
“A lot of money will go to cover losses,” added Natixis’ Alicia Garcia Herrero. “It’s not really a growth push.”
Concrete measures are expected to be announced when the meeting wraps up on Friday — in time for Beijing to take stock of results of presidential elections in the United States.
“We believe the US election results will have some impact on the size of Beijing’s stimulus package,” said Ting Lu, Nomura’s Chief China Economist, in a research note.
Both candidates in the race have pledged to get tougher on Beijing, with Trump promising tariffs of 60 percent on all Chinese goods coming into the country.

Nomura economists expect Beijing to adjust the size of its stimulus depending on the outcome.
“In our view, the size of China’s fiscal stimulus package would be around 10 to 20 percent bigger under a Trump win than under the scenario of a (Kamala) Harris win,” Lu wrote.
But he said that “the major challenges for Beijing emanate from within rather than outside.”

Mired in sea of debt

China is battling sluggish domestic consumption, a persistent crisis in the property sector and soaring government debt — all of which threaten Beijing’s official growth target of five percent for this year.
The property sector was long a key driver of growth, but is now mired in a sea of debt.
Average prices of new residential property ticked up slightly last month, according to a survey of 100 cities by independent researcher China Index Academy.
But China’s cities and provinces are still on the hook for a trove of unfinished and unsold housing units, and repurchasing them could cost Beijing up to 3.3 trillion yuan, according to Natixis estimates.
Prolonged housing woes continue to lead to weak consumer consumption, according to Lim of Moody’s Analytics.
“The average Chinese consumer with existing mortgages does not feel their wealth is increasing,” he said.
The issue of how local governments manage debt is also set to come under scrutiny at the NPC meeting this week.
Authorities at and above the county level will be required to report their debt situation to the NPC each year, Huang Haihua, spokesman for the NPC standing committee’s legislative affairs commission, said at a briefing Friday.
But China’s economic woes run deeper than local mismanagement and empty homes.
“The overall economy is losing productivity out of basically misallocated savings,” said Garcia Herrero, referring to issues within China’s industrial policy spending, including extensive subsidies.
“They need to really change all of that,” she said.
 


Angry crowd hurl mud at Spanish royals, prime minister on visit to flood disaster town

Angry crowd hurl mud at Spanish royals, prime minister on visit to flood disaster town
Updated 20 min 53 sec ago
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Angry crowd hurl mud at Spanish royals, prime minister on visit to flood disaster town

Angry crowd hurl mud at Spanish royals, prime minister on visit to flood disaster town
  • Nasty protest underscored the fury over the response to the disaster that has now killed at least 217 people with many more still missing
  • Most of the fury seemed directed at Prime Minister Sanchez and Valencia regional government head
  • Spanish media later reported of the possible involvement of far-right groups during the incident

VALENCIA, Spain: Furious locals hurled mud and insults at Spain’s king, queen and prime minister on Sunday in a startling show of anger in the worst hit town in the flood disaster that has killed more than 210 people.
More heavy rain fell on the Valencia region after King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez were forced to leave Paiporta where more than 70 people died in floods last Tuesday.
Mud hit the monarchs in the face and clothes as they tried to calm the angry crowd in scenes that underscored the fury over the response to the disaster that has now killed at least 217 people with many more still missing.
The king and queen went to a crisis center in Paiporta. But extra security guards soon had to keep the angry crowd, shouting “murders,” away from the royals and prime minister. They put up umbrellas to stop mud hitting the royal couple.
The king said later that Spain had to “understand the anger and frustration” of people affected by the devastation to towns where cars have been left in muddy heaps in streets.

Queen Letizia of Spain (L) talks with a person as angry residents heckled during the Spanish royal couple's visit to Paiporta on Nov. 3, 2024. (AFP)

In a social media video, the king called on the public to give the victims “hope and their guarantee that the state in its entirety is present.”
Most of the fury seemed directed at Prime Minister Sanchez and Valencia regional government head Carlos Mazon.
“I understand the social anger and of course, I’m here to receive it. This is my political and moral obligation,” Mazon said in a post on X.
The rear window of Sanchez’s car was broken before he and the local politicians quickly left. The socialist leader said that while he empathized with the “anguish and suffering” of the victims, he condemned “all forms of violence.”
Spanish media later reported of the possible involvement of far-right groups during the incident. Sanchez’s deputy Maria Jesus Montero reacted to the allegations on X, saying “We will not allow radical groups to profit from people’s pain.”
Spain’s meteorological agency issued a “red alert” for new storms in the Valencia region on Sunday and heavy rain started falling in the night.
Police using megaphones urged Valencia residents to stay in their homes. While the alert was later downgraded, schools in Valencia were to remain closed Monday.

Authorities have come under fire over the lack of warnings before the floods and the slow reaction after.
“I am aware the response is not enough, there are problems and severe shortages ... towns buried by mud, desperate people searching for their relatives ... we have to improve,” Sanchez said.
With an extra 10,000 troops, police and civil guards sent to the Valencia region, Spain has now ordered its largest peacetime military and security force deployment, Sanchez said.
“Thank you to the people who have come to help us, to all of them, because from the authorities: nothing,” a furious Estrella Caceres, 66, told AFP in the town of Sedavi.
In Chiva, restaurant owner Danna Daniella said she was still in shock, haunted by memories of people trapped by the raging floods “asking for help and there was nothing we could do.”
“It drives you crazy. You look for answers and you don’t find them.”

Soldiers clean a street covered in mud in Massanassa, near Valencia, Spain, on Nov. 3, 2024. (REUTERS)

Transport Minister Oscar Puente told El Pais daily that certain places would probably remain inaccessible by land for weeks.
An army of volunteers with food, water and cleaning equipment have played a key role in the recovery, though authorities have urged people to stay home to avoid congestion.
On Sunday, the Valencia government limited the number of volunteers authorized to travel to the city’s southern suburbs to 2,000 and restricted access to 12 localities.
Despite this thousands made their way to stricken communes on foot, carrying brooms and shovels.

Locals and volunteers remove muddy water on Nov. 1, 2024, after a flooding devastated the town of Paiporta, in the region of Valencia, eastern Spain. (AFP)

Storms coming off the Mediterranean are common this time of year. But scientists have warned that climate change is increasing the ferocity, length and frequency of extreme weather events.
Emergency services on Sunday listed 213 dead in the Valencia region, one in Andalusia in the south and three in Castilla-La Mancha neighboring Valencia.
Authorities have warned the toll could rise as vehicles trapped in tunnels and underground car parks are cleared.
 


Trudeau condemns violence at Hindu temple near Toronto

Trudeau condemns violence at Hindu temple near Toronto
Updated 38 min 27 sec ago
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Trudeau condemns violence at Hindu temple near Toronto

Trudeau condemns violence at Hindu temple near Toronto
  • “The acts of violence at the Hindu Sabha Mandir in Brampton today are unacceptable. Every Canadian has the right to practice their faith freely and safely,” Trudeau wrote on X

TORONTO, Canada: Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned as “unacceptable” violence at a Hindu temple near Toronto on Sunday, following skirmishes blamed by some leaders on Sikh activists.
Local police in the city of Brampton, roughly 50 kilometers (30 miles) northwest of Toronto, said they had deployed heavily outside the Hindu Sabha Mandir in order to maintain calm during a protest.
A spokesman for the Peel Regional Police told AFP that no arrests had been made. Police have also declined to assign blame for the reported violence.
“The acts of violence at the Hindu Sabha Mandir in Brampton today are unacceptable. Every Canadian has the right to practice their faith freely and safely,” Trudeau wrote on X.
A federal lawmaker and member of Trudeau’s Liberal Party, Chandra Arya, blamed the incident on “Khalistanis,” a reference to supporters of the fringe separatist movement for an independent Sikh homeland in India’s Punjab state.
Relations between Canada and India have nosedived after Ottawa accused the Indian government of orchestrating the 2023 killing in Vancouver of 45-year-old naturalized Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Khalistan activist.
Beyond Nijjar’s killing, Canada has accused India of directing a broad campaign targeting Sikh activists on Canadian soil, which Ottawa says has included intimidation, threats and violence.
“A red line has been crossed by Canadian Khalistani extremists today,” Arya, who is Hindu, posted on X.
“The attack by Khalistanis on the Hindu-Canadian devotees inside the premises of the Hindu Sabha temple in Brampton shows how deep and brazen has Khalistani violent extremism has become in Canada,” he said.
Video circulating on social media appears to show individuals carrying yellow Khalistan flags clashing with a rival group, including people holding Indian flags. There were also isolated fist fights, videos show.
Trudeau charged the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with violating Canadian sovereignty.
India has rejected the allegations.
Delhi and Ottawa earlier this month each expelled the other’s ambassador and other senior diplomats.


UK leader Starmer tells Interpol he will treat people-smuggling gangs like terrorists

UK leader Starmer tells Interpol he will treat people-smuggling gangs like terrorists
Updated 50 min 20 sec ago
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UK leader Starmer tells Interpol he will treat people-smuggling gangs like terrorists

UK leader Starmer tells Interpol he will treat people-smuggling gangs like terrorists
  • Starmer plans to increase the UK Border Security Command’s two-year budget from 75 million pounds ($97 million) to 150 million pounds ($194 million)

LONDON: Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he will double funding for Britain’s border security agency and treat people-smuggling gangs like terror networks in an attempt to stop migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats.
In a speech Monday to a meeting of the international police organization Interpol, Starmer will say the gangs behind irregular migration are a serious threat to global security.
Arguing that “the world needs to wake up to the severity of this challenge,” Starmer will say that “we’re taking our approach to counterterrorism, which we know works, and applying it to the gangs,” according to extracts released by his office.
He’ll call for more cooperation between law-enforcement agencies, closer coordination with other countries and unspecified “enhanced” powers for law-enforcement.
Starmer plans to increase the UK Border Security Command’s two-year budget from 75 million pounds ($97 million) to 150 million pounds ($194 million). The money will be used to fund high-tech surveillance equipment and 100 specialist investigators.
Like previous Conservative British governments, Starmer’s Labour Party administration is struggling to stop thousands of people fleeing war and poverty from trying reach the UK from France in flimsy, overcrowded boats.
More than 31,000 migrants have made the perilous crossing of one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes so far this year, more than in all of 2023, though fewer than in 2022. At least 56 people have perished in the attempts this year, according to French officials, making 2024 the deadliest since the number of channel crossings began surging in 2018.
Starmer leads a center-left government, and has raised some eyebrows in September when he visited Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and praised her nationalist conservative government’s “remarkable” progress in reducing the number of migrants reaching Italy’s shores by boat.
Starmer will argue on Monday that “there’s nothing progressive about turning a blind eye as men, women and children die in the channel.”
The opposition Conservative Party argues that Starmer should not have scrapped the previous government’s plan to send some asylum-seekers who reach Britain by boat on one-way trips to Rwanda. Supporters of the proposal say it would act as a deterrent. Human rights groups and many lawyers say it is unethical and unlawful to send migrants thousands of miles to a country they don’t want to live in.
Starmer called the plan a “gimmick” and canceled it soon after he was elected in July. Britain paid Rwanda hundreds of millions of pounds for the plan under a deal signed by the two countries in 2022, without any deportations taking place.
Senior police and government officials from the 196 Interpol member states are attending the global police body’s four-day congress in Glasgow, Scotland.
On Tuesday, Brazilian police official Valdecy Urquiza is expected to be named the new general secretary of the Lyon, France-based organization, replacing Jürgen Stock of Germany.


Moldova’s pro-Western president wins 2nd term in runoff overshadowed by Russian meddling claims

Moldova’s pro-Western president wins 2nd term in runoff overshadowed by Russian meddling claims
Updated 04 November 2024
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Moldova’s pro-Western president wins 2nd term in runoff overshadowed by Russian meddling claims

Moldova’s pro-Western president wins 2nd term in runoff overshadowed by Russian meddling claims
  • Sandu had 54.7 percent of the vote, compared to 45.3 percent for Alexandr Stoianoglo, a former prosecutor general who was backed by the pro-Russia Party of Socialists
  • Turnout stood at more than 1.68 million people, with Moldova’s large diaspora casting ballots in record numbers of more than 325,000 voted, heavily in favor of Sandu in the runoff

CHISINAU, Moldova: Moldova’s pro-Western President Maia Sandu has won a second term in a pivotal presidential runoff against a Russia-friendly opponent, in a race that was overshadowed by claims of Russian interference, voter fraud, and intimidation in the European Union candidate country.
With nearly 99 percent of votes counted in the second round of the presidential election held Sunday, Sandu had 54.7 percent of the vote, according to the Central Electoral Commission, or CEC, compared to 45.3 percent for Alexandr Stoianoglo, a former prosecutor general who was backed by the pro-Russia Party of Socialists.
The result will be a major relief for the pro-Western government, which strongly backed Sandu’s candidacy, and her push for closer Western ties on Moldova’s path toward the EU.
“Moldova, you are victorious! Today, dear Moldovans, you have given a lesson in democracy, worthy of being written in history books. Today, you have saved Moldova! In our choice for a dignified future, no one lost,” Sandu said after claiming victory after midnight.
But she went on to claim that her country’s vote had faced an “unprecedented attack” through alleged schemes including dirty money, vote-buying, and electoral interference “by hostile forces from outside the country” and criminal groups.
“You have shown that nothing can stand in the way of the people’s power when they choose to speak through their vote,” she added.
When polls closed locally at 9 p.m. (1900 GMT), turnout stood at more than 1.68 million people — about 54 percent of eligible voters, according to the CEC. Moldova’s large diaspora, which cast ballots in record numbers of more than 325,000 voted, heavily in favor of Sandu in the runoff.
In the first round held Oct. 20, Sandu obtained 42 percent of the ballot but failed to win an outright majority over the second place Stoianoglo. The presidential role carries significant powers in areas such as foreign policy and national security and has a four-year term.
Allegations of vote-buying and Russian interference
Moldova’s diaspora played a key role in the presidential vote and in a nationwide referendum held on Oct. 20, when a narrow majority of 50.35 percent voted to secure Moldova’s path toward EU membership. But the results of the ballots including Sunday’s vote have been overshadowed by allegations of a major vote-buying scheme and voter intimidation.
Instead of winning the overwhelming support that Sandu had hoped, the results in both races exposed Moldova’s judiciary as unable to adequately protect the democratic process.
On Sunday, Moldovan police said they had “reasonable evidence” of organized transportation of voters — illegal under the country’s electoral code — to polling stations from within the country and from overseas, and are “investigating and registering evidence in connection with air transport activities from Russia to Belarus, Azerbaijan and Turkiye.”
“Such measures are taken to protect the integrity of the electoral process and to ensure that every citizen’s vote is cast freely without undue pressure or influence,” police said.
Moldova’s foreign ministry said on Sunday afternoon that polling stations in Frankfurt, Germany, and Liverpool and Northampton in the UK had been targeted by false bomb threats, which “intended only to stop the voting process.”
Stanislav Secrieru, the president’s national security adviser, wrote on X: “We are seeing massive interference by Russia in our electoral process,” which he warned had a “high potential to distort the outcome” of the vote.
Secrieru later added that the national voter record systems were being targeted by “ongoing coordinated cyberattacks” to disrupt links between domestic polling stations and those abroad, and that cybersecurity teams were “working to counter these threats and ensure system continuity.”
Moldova’s Prime Minister Dorin Recean said that people throughout the country had received “anonymous death threats via phone calls” in what he called “an extreme attack” to scare voters in the former Soviet republic, which has a population of about 2.5 million people.
After casting her ballot in Chisinau, Sandu said “today, more than ever, we must be united, keep our peace, keep our vote, keep our independence.”
“Thieves want to buy our vote, thieves want to buy our country, but the power of the people is infinitely greater,” she told reporters.
Outside a polling station in Romania’s capital, Bucharest, 20-year-old medical student Silviana Zestrea said the runoff would be a “definitive step” toward Moldova’s future.
“People need to understand that we have to choose a true candidate that will fulfill our expectations,” she said. “Because I think even if we are a diaspora now, none of us actually wanted to leave.”
Moldovan police expose a scheme allegedly plotted by a convicted oligarch
In the wake of the two October votes, Moldovan law enforcement said that a vote-buying scheme was orchestrated by Ilan Shor, an exiled oligarch who lives in Russia and was convicted in absentia last year of fraud and money laundering. Shor denies any wrongdoing.
Prosecutors say $39 million was paid to more than 130,000 recipients through an internationally sanctioned Russian bank to voters between September and October. Anti-corruption authorities have conducted hundreds of searches and seized over $2.7 million (2.5 million euros) in cash as they attempt to crack down.
In one case in Gagauzia, an autonomous part of Moldova where only 5 percent voted in favor of the EU, a physician was detained after allegedly coercing 25 residents of a home for older adults to vote for a candidate they did not choose. Police said they obtained “conclusive evidence,” including financial transfers from the same Russian bank.
On Saturday, at a church in Comrat, the capital of Gagauzia, Father Vasilii told The Associated Press that he’s urged people to go and vote because it’s a “civic obligation” and that they do not name any candidates.
“We use the goods the country offers us — light, gas,” he said. “Whether we like what the government does or not, we must go and vote. ... The church always prays for peace.”
On Thursday, prosecutors raided a political party headquarters and said 12 people were suspected of paying voters to select a candidate in the presidential race. A criminal case was also opened in which 40 state agency employees were suspected of taking electoral bribes.
Moldova’s EU future at stake
Cristian Cantir, a Moldovan associate professor of international relations at Oakland University, told AP that whatever the outcome of the second round, it “will not deflate” geopolitical tensions. “On the contrary, I expect geopolitical polarization to be amplified by the campaign for the 2025 legislative elections.”
Moldovan law enforcement needs more resources and better-trained staff working at a faster pace to tackle voter fraud, he added, to “create an environment in which anyone tempted to either buy or sell votes knows there will be clear and fast consequences.”
Savlina Adasan, a 21-year-old economics student in Bucharest, said she voted for Sandu and cited concerns about corruption and voters uninformed about the two candidates.
“We want a European future for our country,” she said, adding that it offers “many opportunities, development for our country … and I feel like if the other candidate wins, then it means that we are going 10 steps back as a country.”
A pro-Western government has been in power in Moldova since 2021, and a parliamentary election will be held in 2025. Moldova watchers warn that next year’s vote could be Moscow’s main target.
In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moldova applied to join the EU. It was granted candidate status in June of that year, and in summer 2024, Brussels agreed to start membership negotiations. The sharp westward shift irked Moscow and significantly soured relations with Chisinau.
Since then, Moldovan authorities have repeatedly accused Russia of waging a vast “hybrid war,” from sprawling disinformation campaigns to protests by pro-Russia parties to vote-buying schemes that undermine countrywide elections. Russia has denied it is meddling.